Fold-down vehicle seats allow the provision of additional cargo space, for example, for luggage, the backrest of the vehicle seat being able to be folded forward to form a so-called “seat package”. Package formations of this type may be achieved, for example, in adjustable-height motor vehicle seat in that the seat is first lowered to the lowest possible level. Subsequently, the backrest is then folded forward, until it assumes an essentially parallel position to the vehicle floor, its front side resting on the seat part cushion. In many of the embodiments known in the prior art, the lowering of the seat part and the folding of the backrest occur independently of one another, which impairs the operating comfort.
Furthermore, a motor vehicle seat which can be lowered, having a backrest foldable around a folding axis fixed on the seat part, is known from DE 198 12 268 C1, the seat part being mounted on a front rocker and a rear rocker and the rockers each having an upper rotational axis with the seat part and a lower rotational axis with the vehicle floor. Furthermore, a rigid coupling element is provided, which couples the movement of the backrest to the rear rocker of a seat parallelogram of the seat part in such a way that pivoting of the backrest results in lowering of the seat part, so that at the end of the folding procedure, the backrest is oriented essentially parallel to the vehicle floor and the seat part rests flat on the vehicle floor.
The rigid coupling of backrest and seat part is fundamentally well suitable to form a seat package. However, it is disadvantageous here that the rigid coupling of backrest and seat part requires a folding procedure which is always executed identically
The formation of a “seat package” may also be disadvantageous in regard to certain loading requirements of a motor vehicle, because the two vehicle seat components which rest one on another, seat part and backrest, occupy a certain installation space height.
At least one object of the present invention is therefore to provide a fold-down vehicle seat, which has a higher degree of user friendliness and which is also universally adaptable to different cargo space configurations. In addition, other objects, desirable features, and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.